SEC Biography:
Commissioner Laura Simone Unger

Laura S. Unger was sworn in on November 5, 1997 as a Commissioner at the Securities and Exchange Commission. On February 12, 2001, President George W. Bush designated her Acting Chairman, and she served in that capacity until August 3, 2001.

Ms. Unger's main focus was the impact of technology on the securities industry. She evaluated how the Commission could optimize the benefits of technology for the capital markets and investors, and made recommendations in her 1999 report to the Commission: "Online Brokerage: Keeping Apace of Cyberspace."

Soon after arriving at the Commission, Ms. Unger conducted a top-to-bottom review of the Commission's Enforcement Division. Ms. Unger also played a key role in the Commission's efforts to deal with Year 2000 remediation efforts by both public reporting companies and Commission-regulated entities.

Before being appointed to the Commission, Ms. Unger served as Securities Counsel to the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs where she advised the Chairman, Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato. Prior to working on Capitol Hill, Ms. Unger was an attorney with the Enforcement Division of the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C.

Ms. Unger received a B.A. in Rhetoric from the University of California at Berkeley in 1983, and a J.D. from New York Law School in 1987.